Sleep Performance, Pt. 2

The #1 Anabolic tool we have is sleep.
You could take 3 mg of testosterone a day, yet if you don’t get enough sleep it’s not gonna make any difference. Sleep is the key. When we sleep enough we get bigger faster stronger, better looking, all the good stuff.

How much sleep is enough?
It depends on the quality of your sleep, and how much slow wave (deep sleep) sleep cycles you are getting. Dr. Parsley recommends a total of 8 hours in bed. 9 hours is cool too. If you need 9.5-10 hours there might be some issues.

What if I can only sleep 6 Hours?
Keep your total time in bed to around 8 hours. If you wake up after 6 hours, stay in bed, practice your breathing techniques, meditation, etc. whatever chills you out, and eventually you will sleep more and more. Pick a bed-time and stick with the bedtime, and pick a wake-up time and stick with that wake-up time.

What should my nap looks?
A 20 minute nap restores creativity pretty well. 30-45 minute nap restores executive function pretty well (cognitive brain function). A 90 minute nap (90-120 min) is a full sleep cycle and will help your whole body recover. Over 120 minutes is just sleep and can interfere with your nighttime sleep

How does working out affect my sleep?
While overtraining can spike your cortisol and negatively affect the quality of your sleep, getting the right amount of training can increase your sleep pressure, which is your drive to want to go to sleep. And the higher the sleep pressure, the more slow wave sleep cycles (better quality of sleep) you get. That’s when you produce testosterone and growth hormone.

How does Marijuana affect my sleep?
Marijuana might not be a great 1st choice as a sleep supplement (see the supplements below), but it is probably the best pharmaceutical intervention, according to Dr. Parsley.

How does alcohol affect my sleep?
Alcohol essentially spikes your cortisol, and, similar to taking a sleep drugs, you don’t enter into deep sleep and therefore lose all of the benefits and adaptations that happen during deep sleep.

How do I improve the quality of my sleep?
Turn off the TV and blue screen devices.
No electronics in bed.
Sleep in a comfortable, cool room.
Sleep in a completely blacked out room.

Supplementing these every night will make sure you are getting the deepest possible sleep that you can get.

Dr. Parsely even has his own combination of all of these supplements put together for you to order. You can grab a sample pack for free (+S&H) on his website: http://docparsley.com!

If we get the sleep we need, get our nutrition in tune, and get some good high intensity workouts throughout the week, our work performance increases, our workout performance (and adaptation increases),our health improves, and we improve the quality of our lives.